Linking classic American literature to contemporary popular culture, Sublime Enjoyment argues that the rational systems of normal social life are motivated and sustained by 'perverse' desires. This perversity arises from the failure of symbolic satisfactions - love, work, success - to make us happy, and from our refusal to accept that failure. Hoping to achieve satisfaction, we respond ultimately to situations that evoke older, more primary drives and their attendant emotions. But while a conventional pervert knows exactly what to want, the healthy pervert must find enjoyment inadvertently: in the object of the sublime, in duty and reason, and in the obligations of a 'fun morality'. Examining the ways in which this inadvertence is represented in American literature and culture, Dennis Foster identifies ways in which longings are linked to social forces.

An examination of 'perverse' desires in American literature.
Reviews
"...such a personalized list of subjects gives Foster license to write in an engagingly personal tone, which though not breezy or unserious makes difficult material palatable. This will be especially so for readers in whom contemporary critical trends elicit groans of anguish, as though they were being forced to endure an article in a scholarly journal. With its fascinating annotations, recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above." J. M. Ditsky, Choice
"Foster's readings are more than consistently credible; they are thoroughly provocative, often generating startling insights about the assumptions that keep the myth of America patched together." Heather J. Hicks, American Literature
"Perhaps the greatest value...is...[the] conscious negotiation of the always uneasy space between literary criticism and sociopolitical transformation." Calvin Thomas, Contemporary Literature



Book Information
ISBN 9780521108188
Author Dennis A. Foster
Format Paperback
Page Count 196
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 11mm